1. Field of the Invention
With reference to the field of art as established in and by the U.S. Patent Office, the present invention is believed to be found in the Class entitled, "Package Making" (Class 53).
2. Description of the Prior Art
The apparatus directed toward tray making has been mainly that of and by manual methods. Automatic erection has been most often in the high-speed production of like trays of the same size and the filling has been of like size and shaped items, usually soft wares or drinks. Six-pack trays with or without a shrink wrap assist are well known and are produced in high speed and great volume. So far as is known, it is novel to provide apparatus for the erecting, filling and delivering trays and having an adjusting capability for easy and rapid change for a large range of sizes of the tray and product.
The present invention is directed toward the erecting of trays used to carry four or six one-gallon cans of paint and the like. This same tray-erecting mechanism can and is used for the assembling of smaller and/or larger cans or containers. Trays are also conventionally used with and for half-gallon and quart containers. Trays are designed to retain the lower portion of the containers by providing a bottom and four secured sides. These sides may be secured by staples, but adhesive is preferred since the tray is thus much more rigid and the possibility of cutting of a hand during emptying is greatly reduced.
Trays erected and filled manually not only require more manpower but also require more space. The manual erection of trays requires advance erection and storage which is often several times the floor area required for the automatic apparatus of this invention. The filling of the erected trays requires the hand operation of usually two or three attendants and the transporting to palletizing operations requires even more attendant attention. The apparatus as presented in this application is automatic and requires an attendant only to replenish the tray hopper and insure that jams do not occur or are freed in short order. The attendant is not intended to perform packaging and filling of trays. The adjusting of size for product change is, of course, performed by a trained attendant.
Trays, of course, contemplate the use of a flat sheet. There may or may not be cutouts in the tray blank providing grip assists for lifting the loaded tray. These tray blanks have cutouts to provide tabs that are folded to provide secured end walls. These tabs may be the length of nearly one-half of the end wall or may be of less length. Conventionally, the tray when erected has the side and end walls of substantially the same height. The tray blanks are of like construction and size for producing a given tray but the apparatus to be hereinafter disclosed may be easily and rapidly adjusted to accept and erect trays of different sizes to accommodate containers of different size or for packing of different quantities such as four or six.